Resilient tire.



FLETCHER W. IBATTEBSHALL, OF ALBANY, NEW' YORK.

,RE'SILIENT TIRE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented oct. l9, 1917.

Application led December 18, 1912. Serial No. 736,458.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, FLETCHER IV. BAT- TERSHALL, of Albany, in the countyof Albany and in the State of New York, have invented a certain new anduseful Improvement in Resilient Tires, and do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The object of my invention has been to provide a tire which, without theuse of compressed air, shall have, among others, the followingadvantages:

That it shall be capable of using both the tensile, compressive andshearing strength of rubber, of which it may be made, and in such amanner that the relative proportions of these qualities may beregulated; and that it shall be capable of tipping sidewise to permityielding to side shocks; and that such tire, while being resilient-tolight vertical shocks, shall be capable of supporting heavy loads; andto such ends my invention consists in the resilient tire hereinafterspecified.

In the accompanying drawings- Figures 1 and 2 are cross-sections,respectively, of wheel rims and different embodiments of my invention.

While I shall illustrate my invention by several embodiments thereof, itis to be understood that such embodiments are illustrative merely of theprinciples of my in-l vention, and that the invention is capable ofembodiment in many dierent forms, and I am not to be restricted .to theparticular forms illustrated. Y

In the form of my invention shownin Fig. 1, I have provided a wheel rim1 with side flanges 2 which are secured thereto as by bolts 3. My rubbertire is provided with a tread 4, which is connected to a body havingside arms 5 which, in this instance, are provided with beads 6 on theirouter ends.

'The said beads lit into channels formed by the flanges 2 and the rim 1.The body pref- 1 erably has a base 7. In the present instance I haveshown springs 8 extending through the body ofthe rubber tire and restingon the rim, which springs in the present instance are shown as flat, butwhich might be of many other forms, or the springs might be omitted. l

In the use of my tire the weight causes the rim to descend toward thetread, which brings into L)lay one or more of three qualities in thetire. First, it tends to force the rim toward the body of the tire,putting the cross-arms 5, in the present instance, undertension, as theyare held apartby the channels in the metal engaging the beads on theends of the arms. Second, the rubber of the arms is to some extent, atleast, compressed by the bearing of the rim upon them; vand third, thereis a tendency to shearing the arms ofi the body. By proportioning thewidths and lengths of the arms,

and the relative positions of the beads and the arms, it will readily beunderstood that the amount of strain taken up by each of these qualitiesof the rubber can be proportioned as desired. The .springs 8 tend toresist the lighter shocks upon the tire and to make it more resilient.When a heavy blow comes upon the tire the rim is forced down until itrests upon theV base 7 of the body, in which condition the tire cansustain a very heavy load without danger of breaking the arms 5.

Under side shocks to the tire the thread can tilt laterally to aconsiderable extent by the yielding of the arms 5, one up and the otherdown, and the bending of the tread itself, and thus the tire can endureshocks which would otherwise break it.

In the form of my invention shownl 'in Fig. 2, the beads and springs ofFig. 1 are omitted and a simpler 'construction is obtained. In such tirethe thread `9 is supported upon arms 10 which rest in rabbets 11 formedin the rim, and the body has a base 12 like the base 7 of Fig. 1. Inthis case the tensile strain on the rubber is very bination of a rubbertire and a metal rim,

said tire having a tread supported by crossarms, said cross-arms restingon shoulders on the rim on opposite sides of the tire,

and'heing e hase normaly out of Contact with the rim but capable ofcontacting therewith under shock, flat springs passing.

through said base and resting on said shoulders and supporting saidtire.

2. A resilient tire comprising e, rubber tire and a metal rim, said tireconsisting of a tread supported upon cross-arms having beads et theirouteil ends, seid rim having Mh ineens for nclosing said beads, seidbody meegeeo In testimony that JI claim the foregoing 1i 15 havehereunto set my hond.

' FLETCHER W. BATTERS. Witnesses:

AUSTIN B. GRMHN,

t 'm B. QmNTANA

